Here is a story about typhoid fever that illustrates the importance of washing and boiling everything that comes from a sickroom. A few years ago there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in a certain town. One of the hospitals was very much crowded, and it became necessary to employ several extra nurses. All the nurses knew the importance of washing their hands after handling the patients, and the old nurses had seen so many bad results from failure to observe this rule that they were very careful. Three of the new nurses, however, thought it a great deal of trouble to be washing their hands all the time, so more and more they neglected this important duty. The result was that all three of these girls got typhoid fever and died. They paid the penalty for neglecting the duty that they well knew they should have performed.
Typhoid fever can be wiped out by attention to neglected details—that is, by disinfecting discharges before throwing them away; by disposing of excretions only in places that are made for them; by adding lime to the closet vault every day to kill any germs present; by making the closet in such a way that flies cannot get into it; and by not permitting sewage to enter any stream until all the disease germs have been killed. All these things can be done. It will require a little work; but had you not rather take a little extra care than run the risk of catching or spreading typhoid fever?
Questions. 1. How do typhoid fever germs get into the body? 2. What is one source of these germs? 3. How do these germs leave the body? 4. Name several ways by which typhoid germs in a stream may get into foods. 5. How do flies carry typhoid fever germs? 6. How do these germs get into milk?
Remember. 1. Typhoid germs come from people who have typhoid fever; they are found in the urine and bowel discharges. 2. No one should ever answer Nature's calls except in a place provided for that purpose. 3. No sewage should be allowed to go into any stream until all the germs in it have been killed. 4. Disease germs will live in running water fully as long as they will in still water. 5. The discharges from a single person may infect a whole city. 6. When typhoid fever germs get into milk, they grow very rapidly; hundreds of people have been given typhoid fever by drinking the milk from a dairy where there was a single person sick with this disease. 7. People who have had typhoid often carry the germs for several months after they are well.
[CHAPTER XXVI]
HOOKWORM DISEASE AND AMOEBIC DYSENTERY
Hookworm disease and amoebic dysentery resemble typhoid fever in one respect, in that they, too are spread by the improper disposal of human excreta.
Where hookworm disease prevails
Hookworm disease is found almost exclusively in tropical or subtropical climates. In the United States it is rarely seen north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers.